


Old Dog, New Tricks

by Unleashed111



Series: Epileptic Mike [2]
Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: Blood, Epilepsy, Family Feels, Gen, Panic Attacks, Seizures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 13:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12818715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unleashed111/pseuds/Unleashed111
Summary: It’s epilepsy awareness month! Joel meets Mike for the first time and then the whole ship starts to fail. Joel is met with overwhelming stakes as Mike has a seizure and the SOL starts to breakdown.





	Old Dog, New Tricks

“Joel! Joel, you should met the new guy!” Tom practically hopped up and down.  
“Yeah! Sometimes he’s a little twitchy, but he’s a pretty good egg.” Crow snickered at his inside joke.  
“What the mads haven’t been running you guys hard enough so you don’t drive us humans crazy? Man, maybe they are getting soft.” Joel smiled jokingly.  
“The mads? More like Mike. He’s the one that needs to be taken care of. They grow up so fast.” Tom sniffed.  
“Wow, I think you guys are the ones who did the growing while I was gone.” Joel blinked in surprise to hear about the bots taking care of the new human.  
“Guys! The mads still haven’t gotten around to sending me the meds yet.” A voice whinned.  
Joel turned to be face to face with a bright young blond man. He glanced over his blue jumpsuit which contradicted his red. The man also had a slightly larger frame and a couple of inches taller than him. There was a slight pout on his face as he held an empty pill bottle. Joel’s brain ran through several different reasons behind this. Taking into account the bots worry and the mads sending the meds he assumed that this Mike was possible chronically sick.  
“Mike! Mike!” The bots chanted excitedly. “Look! This is Joel! He’s the guy who made us!”  
Joel rubbed the back of his neck as the bots showed him off like it was show and tell or something. Mike set down his empty pill bottle and bobbed his head enthusiastically.  
“Oh yeah! I know you! I’m wearing you’re tube socks.” Mike said cheerfully.  
“Oh,” Joel started but before he could get his next words out the alarms that were beeping steadily suddenly blaring and the lights flashing got more intense.  
“Gypsy? I’m gonna need a little help here!” Joel called out quickly grabbing his tools.  
“Mike! Mike? Oh no! Joel! Joel, we need some more functioning arms!” Tom’s voice paused Joel in his tracks.  
Joel turned around to see Mike on the floor spasming and twitching. So, that’s what Crow meant. In one moment Joel was suddenly overwhelmed; he knew that Gypsy wasn’t 100% better and Mike, the guy he just met, was flailing all over the floor. He had two options he could either run off to repairs and see if the alarm was life threatening or ignore the alarm, hope it’s not life threatening or Gypsy is working on it and stay with Mike.  
“Joel! You gotta help move him to his side or he might choke!” Crow struggled to move Mike on his own. “Usually we have Gypsy to help us.”  
Joel hesitated a second longer before dropping his tool bag and rushing over to help his bots. Crouching down he struggled to move Mike’s jerking bigger frame to the side.  
“Um, do I do anything else?” Joel asked unsure of the next step; he was usually the one in charge and knowing what is happening, but everything was out of his hands.  
“Just clear the things away from him so he doesn’t hurt himself.” Tom instructed as he moved several items crowded around Mike.  
Joel quickly eyed a few things and tossed them aside, “how long does this last?”  
“Not long. He should come out of it pretty soon.” Crow looked at the time.  
The flailing limbs and jerking body movement continued for a few more moments before Mike finally settled down and stared blankly ahead. Joel had never seen someone have a seizure in person before. It was so chaotic and overwhelming, but he couldn’t lose focus now he still had to fix whatever was causing the alarms to suddenly go wild. Mike made a light groaning noise before blinking a few times.  
“Mike! You’re back! Do you know where?” Crow asked.  
“Um, the SOL?” Mike muttered.  
Joel quickly stood up and brushed himself off, “I’ve gotta go deal with these alarms.”  
Mike rubbed his head and watched in a daze as Joel ran off to fix the ship. The bright flashing lights and loud beeping hadn’t stopped and it wasn’t helping with the wicked headache he picked up. Tom at some point wandered off to get him some water and handed it to him once Mike was alert enough to swallow it. He took a tiny sip and tried to block out the lights and noise.  
“Shhhhhhh.” Mike groaned at nothing in particular before burying his face into his knees and clasping his hands over his ears.  
Meanwhile Joel was knee deep in trouble as almost everything started to critically fail. Trying to keep his breathing even he tried to keep up with the demands of the system as it all fell apart. Joel was known for his level headedness and calm attitude, but he never felt risks so high before.  
Huffing quietly he quickly rubbed away the tears of frustration gathering in his eyes. Dr. Forrester put all of their lives at risk; he put Joel’s family at risk and the threat of failure loomed over him. He knew the bots and the new guy were waiting for him to fix everything. They believed in him and trusted him.  
His breathing picked up; he couldn’t let them down. He had to stay calm. Fight back the overwhelming thoughts and remembering his balance. He was Joel and he was a laid back type of guy. Calm, calm, calm… Step one. Step two. Step three.  
He let himself fall into rhythm and blocked out everything else. Autopilot took over. He didn’t know how much time had passed. At some point he heard Gypsy, but she was too far away. He had to focus. Keep going. Don’t think about Mike’s twitching body or the risk of losing his bots.  
“Joel!”  
Joel heard his name cut through the fog. He snapped his head over to see Mike, Crow, and Tom. Slowly everything came back into focus. The fuzzy edges gave away to a sharp clear picture. Gypsy had coiled herself around him and pulled him away from everything.  
“Wha- I don’t-” Joel shook his head.  
“You’re done, it’s ok. You did it.” Gypsy reassured him softly.  
Gypsy slowly released him from her coils. Without the support Joel fell to his knees, too tired to keep himself up. Slowly pain in his fingers flared up and he looked down to see that his hands were covered in cuts and blood. His breathing started to pick up and the overwhelming emotions he pushed down before were flooding out. His vision filled with tears and they stung his cuts as they fell on his hands. Fear. Anger. Frustration. Relief. They all came rushing out.  
“Whoa, whoa! Joel!” Tom jumped into action.  
“Argh! We got a leaky human!” Crow squawked.  
Gypsy signed and grabbed the first aid kit. She quietly cleaned Joel’s fingers and wrapped them gently as she could. Joel’s shaking figure made it difficult but she just soothingly hummed a tune. Mike still sore and tired slowly made his way over to Joel and sat on the ground next to him.  
“Hey, buddy. Let it all out. You did amazing.” Mike rubbed his back soothingly. “You saved us all from certain destruction from the mads.”  
Joel’s shaky breaths and sniffs filled the air and it settled into the bots how close they were to dying. They snuggled up close together and Gypsy curled around all of them making a sort of nest.  
“You a-a s-seizure.” Joel choked out.  
“Yeah,” Mike laughed lightly. “When I got hit on the head it knocked my brain around a little too hard and now I have epilepsy. The mads are as nice as they can be about it. They give me my medication even if it might only be so they can torment us more. It’s nice. We just haven’t been getting it recently with being so far from anyone with medication, you know.”  
Joel hummed in agreement as the emotions draining him of his energy. He leaned up against Mike. He had just met him, but somehow he already felt a connection. The SOL really builds bonds in ways you’d never expect. Slowly his breathing evened out and they all fell asleep curled around each other.


End file.
